Rules for Radicals: A Practical Primer for Realistic Radicals
| Author | Saul D. Alinsky |
|---|---|
| Published | 1971 |
| Format | Book |
TL;DR — Alinsky’s 1971 manual of community organizing: how ‘have-nots’ can build power, on means and ends, tactics, and the role of the organizer.
Saul Alinsky’s last book, published by Random House in 1971, a year before his death; this copy is the 1989 Vintage paperback. Alinsky had spent three decades organizing poor and working-class neighbourhoods, beginning with Chicago’s Back of the Yards.
The book is addressed to young activists of the late 1960s and argues for working pragmatically within the system. Chapters cover the purpose of organizing, the ethics of means and ends, a “word about words” (power, self-interest, compromise, conflict), the education of an organizer, communication, how to begin, and the thirteen tactical “rules” for which it is best known. It became a reference point across the political spectrum, cited both by organizers and by critics of the left.
What it is: a classic and much-cited practical handbook of political organizing, from an in-print book.
Where this came from
- A copy saved in October 2026.
196 pages. A PDF copy is held in Kyle’s private archive; it is not linked or shared here.